Football (soccer) is a huge part of South American culture. While in Buenos Aires there was a game on that I was told was not to be missed.
Boca Juniors VS. Arsenal played at La Bombonera stadium in La Boca. Having visited the area last week I was keen to go back and experience an authentic Argentine sporting event so tagged a long with a group of Irish travellers from my hostel in search of tickets. Upon arriving at the stadium we were advised to venture into the suburbs to locate a tout selling tickets. The neighbourhood around La Bombonera is renown for being quite dangerous and it was like nothing I have observed (in real-life) before. It is the closest thing to a ghetto I have seen, the run down streets seemed to be crawling with very ‘dodgy’ looking people. Burnt-out cars lined the curbs, we were approached on every block by someone selling drugs, I’m not sure if I was being paranoid but I’m fairly sure a few them were carrying weapons. I was very keen to give up on the hunt for tickets but didn’t dare leave the group to find my own way back to the stadium to catch the bus back to the inner-city. On 3 occasions we were offered what we deemed to be ‘fake tickets’ which caused a heated exchange of words between our party and the locals adding to my anxiety. We then decided to just buy the next lot of tickets that were offered to us and take the risk that they were fake in order to get out of this neighbourhood.
Thankfully, the tickets were real and we entered the stadium. The adrenaline kicked almost immediately, the chanting of the 49,000 sold out crowd was so loud I could feel it in my chest. Our seats were at the very top of the covered bleachers (on the 3rd level) which ended up being a blessing as we were told some supporters like to urinate on the opponents fan’s below them.
The atmosphere was incredible and I was amazed by the distinct lack of attention being centered on the football game, and more on the people around them. Most people had their backs against the field and spent majority of the game encouraging those behind them to chant and sing. The game seemed to fly by as there was so much going on in the crowds. We celebrated as the Boca Jnr’s won the game 1-0.
This is definitely an experience I will never forget.